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Here's something Yellow that I'm selling at the moment........ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ducati-748-SP-original-Dust-Cover-by-Coprimoto/164411769777?hash=item2647b483b1:g:3NQAAOSw7qlfddxi

The day arrived to take the Strom to Granada (160kms/100 miles) for part exchange.......left at 10AM and it was a bit bloody nippy. Even had to wear a jumper! It was basically all motorway then getting round a city centre with a lot of traffic and a lot of people. Lot of Covid too! Not my ideal environment but it had to be done! Got there 11.45.......left at 12.30.....home by 2.30. So what's the G650GS like compared to the Strom because they're always classed in the same group for magazine reviews? The reality is they're poles apart. Apples and oranges! The Strom is a road bike with a very limited degree of offroad ability, while the GS is a Dualsport/Enduro......simple as that. Sure it's not a hardcore offroad machine because compromises have been made in order to make it useable on the road. And it certainly is......it really surprised me how competent it was. It's physically a lot smaller and about 70lbs lighter than the Strom, with a much lower centre of gravity due to the underseat tank. And you can feel the difference straight away. You can literally turn it on the spot it's just so easy to ride. I pulled away and it was like being back on XT's......but much, much more refined. Usual Beemer crunch going into first and second, but after that it was very slick. It really amazed me on the motorway.......because I thought it would be a bit of a slog. But it's not. I stuck it at 120kph and it was quite happy with it......took it up to 140kph......and it was quite happy with that as well. As usual with BMW the handling, brakes, and suspension were excellent. It was actually a much more comfortable ride home on it, than the earlier journey up on the Strom. Put it like this......I couldn't wait for the journey up there on the Strom to end! Coming back on the Beemer I didn't want the journey to end because I was enjoying it so much. And I got off much fresher than I expected. In fact I was ready for more! Obviously motorways are not really the perfect environment for it......but it handled it superbly! And returned over 70mpg! Seriously, if it's this good on the main roads, I'm interested to see how good it's going to be on the back roads and trails which is more it's natural environment. To sum up.....I absolutely love it! It feels to me so much like the XT's......but considerably more refined. It's still early days with it......but all I can say at the moment is this thing could well be the perfect fit for me! Here's a vid and some pics......including inside the dealer! And yes.....I know I'm going the wrong way up a one way street......and on the pavement. But I'm from Swansea......and I'm a Pensioner! So it's too late in the day now for rational thinking!

That would be a delicacy for him.

Yes......twin plugs Bob! All the later models of these that I've seen have mag wheels......apart from the Sertao.

Has it got the engine with the twin plug head Pete ? My Dakar had that engine, I rode it to the Pyrenees then did a two-day rally there and rode it back home. Even with two days of trail-riding it did 71mpg. I'm surprised that your bike hasn't got wire spoked wheels.

Stroms have brilliant engines........the 650 V-Twin is one of the best motors ever made.

Here's the first pic of the V85 after I rode it home from the dealer. The bike was then rolled into the garage, the bags removed, and they've been stuffed on a shelf ever since. Sorry about the crap photo. I'm no photographer and the bike hasn't been anywhere especially noteworthy yet. Next summer I tell ya, just wait and see!

So, let me provide you with a little background to this trip. The previous year me and Maria had gotten back home with a bike that was leaking oil onto the clutch, still completely rideable though. The bike was ridden straight to the dealership where I had bought it, I left it there for a couple of weeks while they looked it over and had parts ordered. Output shaft had started leaking and contaminated the dry clutch. They were super nice about it and I completely understood that there was no rush in finishing it overnight. The dude who did it was happy to work on an older bike as they are probably Portugal's biggest BMW Motorrad dealer and he gets swamped with new bikes. They replaced the seals, clutch, and a few gearbox seals as well, I only paid for an oil change and was quite happy with it all. Until... A week after bringing the bike home I get on it to go to Lisbon and meet Maria for lunch on a cold friday morning. It was so cold that I stopped for coffee and to tighten my scarf 15 minutes into the ride before the motorway, to find out it was gushing fuel. Fuel lines were all loose. That was fixed by my mechanic, and rode it off. Then, before this 2015 trip I had the usual maintenance done, diff bearing and seals, throttle bodies balanced, etc, and it was running great when we took it to the Algarve in the summer, here arriving at Sagres and looking hella cool! This brings us to the first of October 2015, a happy couple leaving home on an sunny saturday morning after sleeping late. Fuel up and go, and go have a drink in the Algarve. Most clouds we saw that day I enjoyed starting it easy, as I usually do Next day, we're off to Spain We miss our boat and are forced to wait for a couple of hours in Tarifa, we tried to make the best of it with some calamari I strike a pose, this impressed the harbor people so much they let us by in an instant. Back in Tangier! The previous year I learned that most of the places we stayed in had a great swimming pool, and this year I made it a point to bring some shorts, so we got a hotel right in Tangier, and as soon as we noticed they had an inside swimming pool we made use of it. It's great to go for a dip after a day's riding. One size fits all robe was a little big: Came back to our room and what I thought was a wooden sculpture turned out to be a real life @Grasshopper's Ride Sunset in Tangier made going out to dinner even more special If you've got a sweet tooth, you´ll love this place, this is the Cappuccino in Tangier We had a nice dinner of some sandwiches, and turned in to watch some TV in bed, and rest. The plan was to visit a few of the places we didn't go on the previous year, including the Cannabis region, and Marrakesh. In the morning, as I get to the bike and load it, as soon as I turn the key I notice the fuel pump doesn't prime and as such it doesn't start even though the engine spins. I take the seat off and go for a wiggle on the fuses, one of them clicks and apparently it solved it because the bike started right away on the first try. This makes me feel proper manly by being capable of fixing shit. We ride off, into the hills and away from posh cafes. Passing Chefchaouen where we stop for a tea: And we turn away from the main road into smaller ones, this improves the quality of riding. Thing is, you have to be careful on these roads, diesel spills, slippery tarmac, potholes, gravel, fast taxis, no lane control, fast trucks, no lanes, donkeys, etc We're glad to be out and enjoying it, and this time it feels way less intimidating. Thing is, sometimes I think I can feel the bike having a hiccup, but that is usually through a patch of dirt or a pothole, and I assume I am imagining things. I can a be a bit hypochondriac when it comes to bikes and cars, so force myself to carry on. I do stop at a couple of mechanic shops to buy some fuses but all they want to sell to me is hashish Not long after lunchtime, we're happily riding along and as we go though a very slight bump the engine simply dies. It makes no fuss, like if I just switch the ignition off. We come to a stop and I start taking the seat off : First, mess with the fuses, it does nothing. Then, change fuses around, it does nothing. Change relays around, it does nothing. Look at the sidestand switch, it looks ok but I bypass it anyway. It does nothing. So I call my friendly mechanic, he's an expert bmw dude and he tells me that if indeed all that I checked is ok then it could be the fuel pump. In the meantime, we are handling this with coolness, we've got a battery pack for the phone, it's early and light out, it's an adventure. Couple of people stop by and offer assistance, this is good because it means we're not exactly in the middle of nowhere. Getting back to it... This is Aboukassim, and he's a star: Aboukassim lives in Casablanca and is here visiting his family for a celebration. He rode a Yamaha R6 at the time, and this is him showing us films of him blasting past traffic on his R6 in Casablanca? He doesn't know how to help, and we appreciate his effort, he tells us he'll be back in a while... In the meantime, I'm scrounging some electrical wire off a tractor parked nearby, to make a live connection between the battery and the fuel pump. I do it and it does nothing except some tractor loosing use of it's turn signals. above you'll see me calling Allianz's roadside assistance in Portugal. They "oh wow" when I told them where I was ? In the meantime, Aboukassim came back with a couple of his cousins, and food. They set a table right there in the middle of road with fresh hot tea and some sort of bread cooked while stuffed with vegetables inside. Good stuff but I didn´t really have an appetite. I should have eaten, though They left eventually, promising to check on us later. Allianz had already arranged for a fixer in Fez to get a taxi and a truck and pick up up. I understand it takes longer for a truck than for a bike to do the distance over bad roads, but it takes even longer if you get lost ... which is what happened Every time the fixer called he'd talk to Maria because she was a lot better at french than me, but it didn't really help because he didn't know french. He kept asking where we were and saying he was on his way so we waited had some tasty cashews and waited and waited and waited

Thank you! well, at least the body is in perfect working condition, as for the head... well, ask @Pedro! On second thoughts, dont!!!

Loads of space in them for shagging as I recall!

Well I'll throw number 64 in for good measure!

I have one just like it....somewhere.

Cant wait to see what before/after Pete pics look like, still sad to see the v/twin go. Tammy had words of praise for that motor.

Absolutely Pedro! Got to give it a really good clean up this week.......try and get all the metal shining again. Lazy Dago obviously never kept on top of that element......cos polishing is too much like hard work for them.

Nice one, Pete, glad you like the new bike! Bet you're looking forward for some smaller roads now.

Now that's a proper looking Ducati! ?

After about 25 years of owning only Ducatis, I am now down to ONE streetable Ducati (A 1991 851) and two single cylinder project bikes that have never run while I've owned them. Run, for cripe sakes one of them is being built out of left over parts from other projects so it's never even been a real bike before. I fully intend to replace the Aprilia (An RSV-R I bought to use as a track toy) with a Ducati at some point though. I'll never get back to having five of them ready to go (there's a 160 Monza Jr on the end of that line) but I do plan on having more than one. I'd love to have a V2 as a bookend to the 851 but that's a bit of stretch financially for a guy who wants to retire in July.

Well maybe not ALWAYS...

In younger days... and I had to wait to get the 996 in yellow. They had red in stock but in this case Earache was right. (Don't tell him I said that).

Very diplomatic answer Sofia! Because I'm sure if you'd worded it differently some of these sick perverts on here would have responded in an ungentlemanly manner!

I'm the only one here that's met him......twice in fact! And he's only recently found out that I was spitting olives onto his dinner plate back in 2006.